Parents of Olympic champion Never pushed her to tumble

Valeri and Anna Liukin didn't want their only child, Nastia, to experience the same pressures and pains they had growing up in the world of international gymnastics.

The parents had captured Olympic gold medals and world championships between them as stars of the former Soviet sports empire. But they also bore the scars, physical and emotional, that came with the tumbling and back flips and tenth-of-a-point deductions for the slightest mistakes.

"There was never any pressure to be a gymnast," Nastia Liukin said. "They just wanted me to be happy."

Liukin, who turns 19 today, grew up to be both.

She won five medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, including gold in the individual all-around, and did so with her father as coach.

On Saturday, Liukin and Shawn Johnson will headline the 2008 Tour of Olympic Gymnastic Superstars at Value City Arena. Russian-born and Texas-reared, Liukin is one of 11 athletes scheduled to appear.

The event will have a strong Ohio State accent as former Buckeyes and Olympians Blaine Wilson and Paul and Morgan Hamm will also be featured.

The tour's biggest draw, however, is Liukin, whose smiling face has been seen everywhere from The Oprah Winfrey Show to the Wheaties box since returning from Beijing in August.

"We'll get to celebrate my birthday and Halloween in Columbus," Liukin said of the 39-city tour. "This is the first time I've done one of these tours, and they are lots of fun. We've got our own tour bus. You get to perform with great athletes, some of whom you have competed against."

Her rise to fame began in the Plano, Texas, gym owned by her parents. They moved from Russia after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.

Unable to afford a baby sitter, the Liukins took Nastia -- short for Anastasia -- to work with them. Soon, she went from daughter to student, one who refused to take off her leotard before bedtime. Liukin combined the grace of her mother, a world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, and the skill and poise of her father, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1988.

Valeri, who began coaching his daughter when she was 9, told her the flawless dismounts and exotic international travel came with a price. He tore ligaments and shattered limbs. He has metal plates in his left forearm.

"Some gymnasts cannot be trained by their parents," Liukin said. "Mine guided me every step of the way."

There were disagreements and clashes along the path to Beijing. Anna hung up one of Valeri's Olympic gold medals on her bulletin board for inspiration.

Under her father's guidance, Liukin won nine world championship medals, tying her with Shannon Miller for the most ever by an American female.

Liukin possessed the talent to be a member of the 2004 Olympic team, but she didn't meet the international age requirement of 16.

That minimum-age rule became the center of controversy at the 2008 Summer Games. An investigation was launched into whether several members of the gold-medal-winning Chinese women's gymnastic team were underage. No evidence of wrongdoing was uncovered.

"We had no control of what went on; we couldn't worry about it," said Liukin, part of the silver-medal-winning U.S. squad. "We played by the rules; we played fair. They (the Chinese gymnasts) ended up being cleared. It's all behind us."

In individual competition, she captured silver medals in balance beam and uneven bars and bronze in floor exercise. The crowning moment was an all-around gold medal.

The Olympics were a special time for the family.

"It had been 20 years since my father won his medals in Seoul, and it was 20 years since my parents had been married," she said. "Our family realized a lot of dreams in Beijing."

treed@dispatch.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.